Feature: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Episode 18: Sympathy for the Mandrill) Television 

Five Thoughts on Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts’ “Sympathy for the Mandrill”

By | August 2nd, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to Multiversity Comics’ Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts reviews. This week there’s sad songs, isolation, humiliation, betrayal, and much needed hugs.

“Sympathy for the Mandrill”
Written by Christopher Amick & Ben Mekler
Directed by Bridget Underwood

1. Dave, making plans better?

So our heroes come up with a plan to rescue Kipo, and then Dave adds dinner to the equation, making the plan objectively better—or at least it would have been if said dinner hadn’t been a canister of explosive nectar. Look, this storyline is super lightweight in terms of character and plot, but it’s fun and it’s a great counterbalance to the heaviness of everything else.

2. Hugo

Following the cold open and the title of this episode, it was abundantly clear what we’d be getting. This is Hugo’s descent into Scarlemagne, and since we’re getting this backstory in one hit, this is pretty much the whole episode. It’s a lot all at once.

This was some backstory I’d been craving for a while. I felt like the moustache-twirling villain version of Scarlemagne didn’t have much legs in terms of story tension, and I knew there was more under the surface. With this episode, I finally got the more complex Scarlemagne I’d wanted.

There’s so much about Hugo’s story explored in this episode. He was raised in captivity and experimented on, so who can blame him for escaping into a fantasy of kings and courtly manners? It was his mechanism for escaping his reality. Ultimately, it becomes an unhealthy one though, and when he can’t process his pain, he gives into that fantasy wholeheartedly. All the courtly trappings of Scarlemagne are an attempt to squash down Hugo, to be be powerful instead of hurt.

As much as Song and Lio may have loved Hugo, even before he was caught and imprisoned by Dr. Emilia, Hugo was already in a prison when he should’ve been with children his own age. Hugo has a compassionate and self-sacrificing side, as is often shown in these flashbacks, but that side of himself caused him so much pain, and no one ever gave him as much in return. Now we know why Scarlemagne resents Hugo so much, why he tries to to crush any empathy he might feel. It comes from that fear of being hurt again.

3. Shame and fear

Even before he was abandoned, following the collapse of his burrow, Hugo was taught shame and fear. He had to curtail his behavior to keep himself from Dr. Emilia’s notice, and even though he understands that intellectually, he doesn’t emotionally. Hugo’s still a kid, and the few rooms of the burrow he’s seen are his entire world.

And then there’s a moment when he discovers the power of his pheromones, and Lio tells him it’s not right to control people, and Song admits it’s a little creepy, and right there the seeds are planted that make him ashamed to use his own natural self defense. Yes, there are morally wrong ways to use that power and that’s something Hugo needs to learn, but at this point in time he hadn’t done that yet. If someone’s hurting him, Hugo has a right to protect himself.

Hugo’s sense of security was tied to his family, represented by a security blanket with stars on it. When that family was taken away, he gave himself wholly over to the only security he had left, the ability that gave him power over others. A power he had learned to be ashamed of. And now he lives a life where if that power were broken, he’d have to reckon with how afraid and alone he still is.

4. Lio’s betrayal

I get why Hugo is so angry at Lio. Hell, I was angry at him after this episode. The way he abandoned Hugo was horrible. Hugo, just as much as Kipo, is Lio’s family. There’s a reason Hugo’s blanket had stars on it. Stars have been a visual and thematic representation of Kipo’s family since the first episode of the show.

Continued below

While in captivity, Hugo held onto hope so that Kipo would be safe, and then Lio abandoned him. And you don’t abandon family.

5. That hug

I don’t really have anything to say about this moment, it’s just Kipo doing the most Kipo thing ever. It’s what I love about the character.

What did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments.


//TAGS | Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Mark Tweedale

Mark writes Haunted Trails, The Harrow County Observer, The Damned Speakeasy, and a bunch of stuff for Mignolaversity. An animator and an eternal Tintin fan, he spends his free time reading comics, listening to film scores, watching far too many video essays, and consuming the finest dark chocolates. You can find him on BlueSky.

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Feature: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season Two poster) Columns
    We Want Comics: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

    By | Jul 13, 2021 | Columns

    Welcome back to We Want Comics, a column exploring various intellectual properties—whether they’re movies, TV shows, novels, video games, or whatever else—that we would like to see adapted into comic books. Usually these intellectual properties were originally developed without comics in mind at all, but in this case I’m diving into something that originally began […]

    MORE »
    Feature: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Episode 29: Prahmises) Television
    Five Thoughts on Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts’ “Prahmises”

    By | Dec 13, 2020 | Television

    Welcome back to Multiversity Comics’ Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts reviews. This week there’s dancing, sparkly lights, fancy dress, a K-Pop band, and. . . emotions.“Prahmises”Written by Joanna Lewis & Kristine SongcoDirected by Michael Chang1. LiamEmilia and Liam grew up in the same burrow, a burrow where someone can declare, “Humans on top!” and […]

    MORE »

    -->